XP Freezes On Shut Down (Tried A lot To Fix)

[Chazell29]

So here is my problem. This computer is running Windows XP, and everything works fine, until you shut down, it goes to where it says "Windows is Shutting Down" and then it "freezes", if I try moving the cursor with the built in mouse pointer thing, it doesn't move, but If i have a USB mouse, i can still move the cursor, and it just sits there, even leaving it for hours.

I know that this is a problem that happens a lot in XP, and I found multiple articles from both Microsoft and other forum websites from Google searches, but nothing has helped.

It's a Sony Vaio laptop, its one of my managers, he did something to his old laptop, and sent it to Sony, who sent him this, so its pretty much brand new. He said he installed Microsoft Office, and then he put in the Microsoft Recovery disc, thinking it was the Office Disc, to make an illegal copy ( grrrr...idiot) and thats all he told me. He said it got a little messed up, and his other friend fixed it...then it started freezing on shutdown, so he would hold the power button. He then corrupted one of the hives in the registry, so I used the Recovery Console from the XP disc to fix that.

Ive tried Error Checking, Registry Mechanic, clearing temporary files, defragmenting the hard drive, nothing has worked, any good articles that can fix this problem?

[shadowpr]

If it's basically a brand new set up, why not just reformat and do a clean install.

[Chazell29]

Originally Posted by shadowpr If it's basically a brand new set up, why not just reformat and do a clean install.

He has a bunch of stuff from the old computer that he put on this one, and programs and stuff, its an option, and I want to use it as my last resort, I want to try to fix it till I can't find a cure.

[TwoRails]

Shutdown problems are very hard to find. It's usually software / driver issues, not hardware. You may have to go thru the registry and remove crap leftover from bad uninstalls. For one example, on my own machine, I shaved a lot of time off shutdown time by manually removing references from a software package I uninstalled long, long ago. Turn off any autoupdates (some times they try it during shutdown. Make sure there is nothing connected, including a disk in the optical drive. Shut down all items (software, connections, etc.) before hand to see if any are taking too long.

Most likely, it's some of that old stuff not behaving. Find out what has been uninstalled and search the registry for artifacts. (my example above left over 50 items that CCleaner and the like didn't find!!)

[Chazell29]

Originally Posted by TwoRails Shutdown problems are very hard to find. It's usually software / driver issues, not hardware. You may have to go thru the registry and remove crap leftover from bad uninstalls. For one example, on my own machine, I shaved a lot of time off shutdown time by manually removing references from a software package I uninstalled long, long ago. Turn off any autoupdates (some times they try it during shutdown. Make sure there is nothing connected, including a disk in the optical drive. Shut down all items (software, connections, etc.) before hand to see if any are taking too long. Most likely, it's some of that old stuff not behaving. Find out what has been uninstalled and search the registry for artifacts. (my example above left over 50 items that CCleaner and the like didn't find!!)

Thanks, I'll give it a shot.

[Cricket]

Did you happen to find this web page while Googling the problem?

Cricket

[Chazell29]

Originally Posted by Cricket Did you happen to find this web page while Googling the problem? Cricket

ah! I found that page but it was a windows 98/NT one, so i mo ved on, let me try that. thanks.

[juppy]

I was going to mention a couple things you might try, but Cricket's link mentions both of them. Just so you don't skip over them, one was about the file CTFMON.EXE which is used by MS Office. That link explains how it can hang and offers another link to disable it. The other thing I thought of was the AutoEndTasks setting in the registry. There's a patch on that page Cricket linked to, but if you just want to do it manually, go in the registry to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
and set the AutoEndTasks value to 1.

[Petef56]

I recently ran into a shutdown problem on a reletively new DELL Laptop. It turned out
to be hardware related. Apparently the CD drive was not working properly causing the
PC not to shut down or it would take forever to shut down.

The solution was to remove one screw on the bottom side of the laptop to free up
the CD drive. Then I removed the CD drive and simply reinserted it making sure it
was properly seated so that the electrical connections were good. After that, the
computer shut down normally. This laptop was on Vista.

---pete---